SWO sparks by football final MVP Walker, Williams

Southwest’s J’Veon Walker (10) drives to the basket as Swansboro’s Anfernee Ashley defends during the Stallions’ 64-41 nonconference win over the Pirates on Wednesday night.

Chris Miller/The Daily News

By Chris Miller-Prep Sports Writer

Published: Thursday, December 6, 2012 at 09:30 AM.

SWANSBORO — Southwest showed no ill-effects from having just two practices as an entire team Wednesday night.

The Stallions opened their boys’ basketball season by defeating Swansboro 64-41 in a nonconference game that saw Southwest shoot 51 percent from the field.

“Any time you only get two days of practice and you come out and play as well as we did, you have to be pleased,” Southwest coach Tommy Barnes said. “I thought defensively we did well for the first game. We played with a lot of hustle and get-after-it, and I thought we crashed the boards pretty good for the most part.”

Southwest’s season started later than most other teams because of the Stallions’ run to the state 1-AA football title. Five Southwest basketball players were on the football team that beat Swain County 44-34 on Saturday in the state final.

One of those is junior J’Veon Walker, who was named the championship game’s most valuable player. He followed that up by scoring 14 points in his first basketball game of the season, which included a pair of impressive slam dunks.

“It was kind of hard for me because I haven’t dribbled a basketball in about four to five months because of football,” Walker said. “But we have been playing (basketball) together for a couple of years now. So we know how we all play. We just went with the flow and tried to get back in the groove of playing basketball.”

Barnes, the defensive coordinator on the football team, said it helped that assistant coaches Eric Kliewer, Tommy Tucker and James Warren worked with the basketball players who were not playing football.

SWANSBORO — Southwest showed no ill-effects from having just two practices as an entire team Wednesday night.

The Stallions opened their boys’ basketball season by defeating Swansboro 64-41 in a nonconference game that saw Southwest shoot 51 percent from the field.

“Any time you only get two days of practice and you come out and play as well as we did, you have to be pleased,” Southwest coach Tommy Barnes said. “I thought defensively we did well for the first game. We played with a lot of hustle and get-after-it, and I thought we crashed the boards pretty good for the most part.”

Southwest’s season started later than most other teams because of the Stallions’ run to the state 1-AA football title. Five Southwest basketball players were on the football team that beat Swain County 44-34 on Saturday in the state final.

One of those is junior J’Veon Walker, who was named the championship game’s most valuable player. He followed that up by scoring 14 points in his first basketball game of the season, which included a pair of impressive slam dunks.

“It was kind of hard for me because I haven’t dribbled a basketball in about four to five months because of football,” Walker said. “But we have been playing (basketball) together for a couple of years now. So we know how we all play. We just went with the flow and tried to get back in the groove of playing basketball.”

Barnes, the defensive coordinator on the football team, said it helped that assistant coaches Eric Kliewer, Tommy Tucker and James Warren worked with the basketball players who were not playing football.

“They had them practicing while football was going on,” Barnes said.

Meanwhile, Swansboro (2-3) was hoping to win for the second consecutive night. The Pirates were coming off a win at Dixon, and stayed with Southwest for most of the first quarter before the Stallions pulled away.

“It is hard for me to imagine that 17-year-old kids playing basketball two nights in a row is really going to wear them out that much,” Swansboro coach Ed Walsh said. “Tommy always does a great job having his guys very physical and very active.”

Junior Jeffrey Williams had 12 points and 10 assists for the Stallions, who began to separate from the Pirates with a 9-2 run in the first quarter that gave Southwest a 19-10 lead.

The Stallions then added an 8-0 spurt in the second quarter before not allowing a field goal in the third quarter. Southwest scored the first 14 points of the third quarter, including eight from Walker.

Southwest’s pressure led to transition points.

“We picked it up (and) we were able to get some fast breaks and layups,” Barnes said. “I think that was the difference.”

The Stallions forced 20 turnovers and limited the Pirates to 31 percent shooting. Swansboro was 0 of 16 from the floor in the third quarter.

“The first thing on his mind is defense first,” Walker said of Barnes.

Southwest’s transition was led by Williams, who was able to find room to penetrate.

“He set the tone,” Barnes said. “By him making shots early on, it really got us started and then everybody else followed.”

Swansboro, which got 12 points from Anfernee Ashley, didn’t help its cause by settling for perimeter jump shots. The Pirates didn’t make a second-half field goal until T.J. Foy scored from the inside with 6:50 left in the game.

“We took some quick shots, and that’s always a danger when a couple of them fall early,” Walsh said. “You start thinking you can take them anytime. We had some opportunities to get closer to the basket and we didn’t take those.

“In the third quarter we came out a little flat and Southwest came out ready to go. The snowball effect has been an issue for us where we let one mistake turn into three or four in a heartbeat.”

Southwest ended with 17 turnovers, eight coming in the fourth quarter with the Stallions already with a comfortable lead.

Yet Barnes wasn’t happy about the giveaways.

“I know (most of the turnovers) came toward the end, but it creates bad habits we don’t need,” he said. “We don’t need to think we are better than what we are. We got some work that needs to be done. We have to protect the ball a little better and we have to run our offense.”

Still, it was not a bad way for the Stallions to tip-off their season.